The invention relates to the field of remote surveillance, supervision and alarming, and particularly to a surveillance arrangement employing multimedia networks and a multimedia network controller having surveillance functionality provisions.
In the field of surveillance, supervision or alarming, the term irregularity is usually referred to as a sound or movement that deviates from what is considered common in the facility area that is being monitored.
In solutions for surveillance, supervision or alarming, the control logic is typically referred to as the hardware or software system part that detects and responds to an irregularity, such as for instance making a call, or sending an e-mail etc., to notify an operator when an irregularity is detected by the system.
Surveillance solutions capable of notifying a facility caretaker of unusual or irregular conditions or events at the facility are often expensive, are typically based on provider specific or custom made equipment and software. Furthermore, such solutions often employ expensive dedicated or leased lines, typically in order to obtain the required notification priority.
A solution in the field of the invention is known from WO 98/24078, describing a system with alarm sensors with a 4-level capability. A central alarm unit polls the alarm sensors, which are connected by ISDN-lines. D-channels are used for the purpose, such that normal telephony can operate in parallel.
Other such solutions are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,849, WO 98/16412, WO 98/34126, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,111.
Typically for known solutions are that they do not fully address a number of problems raised in this area. Some such problems that still require further attention are:
Customer""s, operator""s and manufacturer""s desire to use more standardised equipment and systems, preferably based on public or industry standards, or other available standards, that also can simplify such solutions as well as lower their investment and/or operating costs,
cost aspects related to the use of expensive circuits which lines, such as for instance PSTN, that typically are being used as communication bearers between the sensor and the server, or central unit, and for delivering notifications such as warnings and alarms,
low or inefficient usage of the often expensive control logic due to that those parts of solutions in this area typically are located, and associated, with the xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d, that is, proximal to the sensor side of a system, and,
the difficulties often encountered in obtaining access to the control logic for maintenance and operations activities, such as e.g. making control logic updates and/or modifications.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved solution for surveillance, supervision and alarming.
A multimedia surveillance arrangement comprises a multimedia surveillance sensor arrangement, surveillance receiver: and a network arrangement. The multimedia surveillance sensor arrangement which comprise an H.321 or SIP gained first end-point and which is adapted for establishing a multimedia connection for communicating surveillance media according to a multimedia communication protocol standard corresponding to the H.323 standard recommendation or the SIP standard recommendation. The multimedia surveillance sensor arrangement is connected to a first multimedia H.323 or SIP adapted network. The surveillance media represents at least one sensed parameter. The surveillance receiver comprises an H.323 or SIP adapted second end-point and adapted to receiving all or part of the surveillance media and connected to a second multimedia adapted network. The network arrangement comprises the first and second multimedia adapted networks and interconnected by media gateways and at least one network controller. The network controller is a SIP server or an H.323 Gatekeeper and is adapted to serve as an endpoint for receiving the surveillance media communicated from the surveillance sensor. The network controller is further adapted to interact with the received surveillance media, the is responsive to information contained in the received surveillance media and is adapted to communicate an event message or at least part of the received surveillance media to the multimedia surveillance receiver on basis of the information. Another aspect concerns the multimedia network controller itself.